April 10, 2023
The Lakers did it. They went 17-7 down the stretch to finish the regular season as the 7th seed, and qualify for the play-in tournament. Had they played those last 24 games with more of Lebron James and Anthony Davis, they might have finished as high as 4th. They only played 10 games together after the All-Star break. Prior to yesterday, I was beginning to think that these guys worked for “Chick Fil A” since they never seemed to be available on Sunday. Finishing 7th is impressive and goes to show you how much better of roster they have after the trade deadline. However, one can’t help but question just how much gas this team has in the tank, and how durable they are to get through the West. It’s imperative that they win on Tuesday against the Wolves, which won’t be easy. They badly need the 5 days of rest leading up to a first round series with Memphis. Must be a tough situation for the Wolves. They obviously want to win, but the longer they play, the longer they have to be around Rudy Gobert, who is punching his teammates publicly now. The other thing the Lakers must do moving forward, is to make sure that Anthony Davis is involved more consistently on offense. He is un-guardable, and when he touches the ball he has to be doubled, which ultimately, makes the Lakers more dangerous than anyone. That’s on Darwin Ham and Lebron James to initiate that.
Meanwhile, the Clippers picked up a win against the Suns yesterday, clinching the 5th seed for the Clips. That means they will play Phoenix, beginning in the desert next week. When I listen to Kawhi talk, and you know he never talks, he doesn’t sound very confident that Paul George is going to be back anytime soon. For that reason, it makes me think that Clips aren’t feeling all that great about this matchup, and the Suns are. It probably also explains why Phoenix sat their starters yesterday. I’m not sure how the Clips will guard both Durant and Booker without George. Kawhi can only guard so many people. As for all the Russell Westbrook talk, people will say anything. Some anonymous NBA GM was quoted saying the Lakers didn’t use Russ the right way, trying to make him a wing, which is why it failed. That GM clearly didn’t watch the games, because he missed nearly two full seasons of Russ having the ball in his hands, blowing layups, hitting the side of the backboard repeatedly, and shooting the ball with the accuracy of Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Along Came Polly”. He also failed to realize that the Clippers record with Russ is actually worse since he got there. Still, a sensible person can realize that multiple things can be true at the same time. Russ is a better fit with the Clippers than with the Lakers, because he isn’t making $47 million anymore, and doesn’t compromise the Clippers depth. He’s fine as a minimum salary role player. However, the fact Ty Lue keeps him on the bench in the 4th speaks volumes about how much he trusts him in crunch time. That will continue to be interesting in the 1st round of the playoffs.
To baseball where it was a rough weekend for the Dodgers. They lost 3 of 4 to the Diamondbacks, and are suddenly looking like a very mediocre team. The most surprising part of their 5-5 start is that their pitching was especially bad. Austin Barnes probably wanted to get ejected yesterday, just so he could watch the Lakers and the Masters in the clubhouse. Usually it’s reliable, but both the starters and the bullpen were pitching like they were throwing batting practice all weekend. It’s also time to start moving the likes of Miguel Vargas and James Outman higher in the lineup, and drop Max Muncy. I realize that Muncy has done a lot for this team over the years, but he’s been bad for most of the past year plus. Move him down in the lineup until he can start swinging the bat like he we’ve seen him to before. I realize it’s early, and while I think the starting pitching will turn itself around, I don’t know what to make about the bullpen , or the inconsistency in the lineup. At some point they will need a real closer too. In the meantime, all we can do is overreact, because it’s what we do.
It was also a tough weekend for the Angels, who lost 2 of 3 to the Blue Jays. The Halos handed over a 6-0 lead yesterday, and then squandered some opportunities late to lose 12-11. The Jays are definitely a top tier team, so on one hand, you can’t be too upset, especially since the team seems to be swinging the bats. On the other hand, Phil Nevin’s pitching management probably could have been better, especially on a day like yesterday when Reid Detmers was struggling. How long is it going to be before Logan O’Hoppe becomes the teams cleanup hitter? How long is it going to be before Anthony Rendon starts earning his fat paycheck? The good news for the Halos is that they take on the Nationals next, who stink. Separately, I can’t believe the Halos asked Sam Blum to no longer appear on that Baseball Writer Roundtable show. Apparently when you tell it like it is, people don’t like it. Arte Moreno would rather sugar coat everything. We might as well be living in a communist regime.
Some mixed news for UCLA Basketball in the past week. Jaylen Clark and Jaime Jacquez have declared for the NBA draft. However, Clark did not hire an agent, and may come back to school. The Bruins now have to brace themselves for the decisions of Adem Bona and Amari Bailey. One would assume that Tyger Campbell isn’t coming back either. The Bruins did get some good news though in that they got a commitment from Utah transfer Wing Lazar Stefanovich. Hard to say yet whether he would start, but looks like a solid rotational piece. Given where most of these kids are projected to go in the draft, I’m surprised more NIL sponsors haven’t stepped up to come up with more money to keep those kids in school and keep UCLA as a championship contender.
Congratulations to Jon Rahm for winning the 2023 Masters over the weekend. I’m much more concerned about Tiger Woods though, and seeing him limp around on the course yesterday at Augusta. We knew that it was going to be tough for Tiger to just make the cut, which he did. However, when the weather got cold, it only got worse for him, and you knew his body was going to start working against him. At this point, it feels like he’s in a race against his body. Then again aren’t we all? I just had a bag of chips at 10:30 pm last night. I only hope that his issue is a simple case of plantar fasciitis, that won’t prevent him from competing in big tournaments later this year.
Finally, what the heck has happened to the LA Kings? They went from being one of the hottest teams in the league just a week ago, to struggling to score, and defend. Now, they will for sure not have home ice advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs starting next week. I mean the Kings played so badly against Vegas, I thought they were going to try to troll them by putting Jonathan Quick in goal late in the game. Heck, it might have given them a chance to actually win! If they play anything like they have in the past week, they will be booking trips to Cancun before the month is over.